TPL and McMaster University’s Master of Public Policy in Digital Society present: Silicon Values: Free Speech, Democracy and Big Tech.

What is the impact of surveillance capitalism on our right to free speech? The internet once promised to be a place of extraordinary freedom beyond the control of money or politics, but today corporations and platforms exercise more control over our ability to access information and share knowledge to a greater extent than any state. 

In Silicon Values, author Jillian C. York looks at how our rights have become increasingly undermined by the major corporations’ desire to harvest our personal data and turn it into profit. 

And joining Jillian C. York is legal and policy expert Yuan Stevens, whose work examines the impacts of technology on equality-seeking populations and the importance of accountability of the actors building these powerful systems. 

Vass Bednar, Jillian C. York and Yuan Stevens will discuss how Silicon Values have been shaping tech policy in the US and how these values manifest in a Canadian context.

The Big Data and Tech in Our Backyards series explores how technology trends and Big Tech companies are reshaping our increasingly digital society.

Hosted by Vass Bednar, Executive Director of the Master of Public Policy Program at McMaster University, this monthly series invites authors, journalists and tech workers to take on complex, topical issues related to data collection and product marketing and apply them to a Canadian context.

Previous episodes in this series:

Predict + Surveil: Data, Discretion, and the Future of Policing

Big Tech, Monopolies and Imagining Alternatives

Watching, Listening, and Learning: Feeding the Marketing Algorithms

Toronto Public Library is committed to accessibility. Please call or email us if you are Deaf or have a disability and would like to request accommodation to participate in this program. Please let us know as far in advance as possible and we will do our best to meet your request. At least three weeks notice is preferred. Phone 416-393-7099 or email accessibleservices@tpl.ca